UK lender Barclays has sold its exposure to Slater & Gordon's debt stack for 22¢ in the dollar, Street Talk can reveal. It is understood the slice is worth about £50 million.
Barclays was one of four major lenders to the troubled law firm, alongside National Australia Bank, Westpac and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The sale comes as Slater & Gordon, its remaining debt holders and advisers hold crunch talks around agreeing the terms for a debt for equity swap, as first reported by this column.
The preference of lenders is for the company to remain listed, and one of the points of discussion is whether the lenders will accept new shares as a replacement for their loans.
The main priority of the future owners is to stabilise the business, which they believe is sustainable, so that clients and staff don't head for the exits.
The same is not likely to apply to the Andrew Grech-led management and board that embarked on a UK acquisition that destroyed over a billion dollars of shareholder value in less than two years.
